Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in the last couple of weeks, we have spent a lot of time on harmonization. I never spoke about harmonization until today. Mr. Speaker, my only stand on harmonization is that we are taking one income program we have now and totally changing that and adding something new. The reason for income support, to my understanding, is to help people get the basics. What income support is doing now is trying to make it a little more difficult for clients to be on income support so they could go and get a job. In the NWT, that shouldn't be a problem.

Mr. Speaker, in our smaller communities, that's not an option. If we are going to treat clients with dignity and respect, we should also recognize that there are no jobs that they could just get off income support and get a job. If we are going to be doing that, we should be providing an option for these communities, for these people in communities who are on income support because they don't have a choice, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, we are trying to make it more difficult for people to be on income support, so they could go get a job, but what are we doing? We have regional organizations that are just another bureaucracy taking up the jobs, so that they could control communities by making them a social state. Now we have income support that says we are going to make it more difficult for you to be on income support and make it a viable option for you to go get a job, which means leaving town. The resulting factor is moving away from our smaller communities, into the regional centres, into the capital. My colleague, Mr. Braden, talks about the tight housing market in Yellowknife. They are all coming from our communities. Why? Because we can't give them housing there, we can't give them jobs there. Most of them can't get a job because we haven't educated them well enough. Now we are going to make it more difficult for them to live in public housing, to be on income support, which is a basic right of this government. We don't even understand how income is assessed. We understand that IBA payments will be clawed back. We understand that the child tax benefit will be clawed back. We understand that parents who get child support will be assessed as well. I asked them in my communities, have you been consulted? Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.